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- Newsgroups: comp.arch
- Path: sparky!dsndata!backbone!backbone!wayne
- From: wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt)
- Subject: Re: big + little endian (was: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS ..)
- In-Reply-To: pj@sam.wpd.sgi.com's message of 30 Dec 1992 01: 44:51 GMT
- Message-ID: <WAYNE.92Dec30093950@backbone.uucp>
- Sender: wayne@backbone (Wayne Schlitt)
- Organization: The Backbone Cabal
- References: <1992Dec29.044012.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> <3623363@zl2tnm.gen.nz>
- <28164@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <1hquujINNmov@fido.asd.sgi.com>
- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 15:39:50 GMT
-
- In article <1hquujINNmov@fido.asd.sgi.com> pj@sam.wpd.sgi.com (Paul Jackson) writes:
- > |> 01101001 may mean `105' (big-endian) or `150' (little-endian)
- >
- > Big and little endian refer to the order of bytes within words,
- > not to the order of bits within bytes.
- >
-
- Big and little endian refer to the order of sub-units within units,
- not just bytes and words.
-
- You can order bits within bytes either way, bytes within words, and
- words within double words. Various computers systems have made
- different choices at all of those levels. The ordering of bits within
- bytes has pretty much standardized on the little-endian format.
-
-
- Similar confusion occurs when you try to decide whether to put the low
- address of a memory dump at the top or the bottom of the page and if
- you should address the screen from the top left or the bottom left
- corner. (If computer development wasn't so eurocentric, then we would
- probably have debates on left vs right too.)
-
-
- -wayne
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